Civil Engineering/Architecture - Housing and Property - National Consultant

Result of ServiceThe service will help UN-Habitat to improve security of tenure of peoples living in informal areas by introducing pro-poor practices and innovative tools that proved efficient and effective in the most challenging contexts. Work LocationAleppo City, Syria Expected duration8 months Duties and ResponsibilitiesBackground: The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future. Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all. Since 2014, UN-Habitat has been working closely with the Syrian local governments and communities to address the implications of the crisis. Support to the cadastral offices and municipalities in cities at the local level to provide suitable HLP services, and to secure property rights to the affected individuals and communities has become a key UN-Habitat objective. In 2017, UN-Habitat Syria Programme started supporting the efforts to rehabilitate the damaged cadastral offices and create digital archives of the cadastral contracts in affected cities where the land sheets were lost or destroyed. After the earthquakes that hit the country on the 6th and the 20th of February 2023, UN-Habitat, with a generous support of the Government of Japan, has been responding to the emergent needs in the cities of Aleppo (Aleppo Governorate) and Jableh (Lattakia Governorate) through an Integrated Post-Earthquake Early Recovery and Resilience Building in Aleppo and Jableh, a comprehensive programme which aims at supporting recovery from the disaster and enhancing resilience of affected communities. One of the programme’s outputs, Output 3: Housing, Land and Property (HLP) claims of residents of informal areas are recorded and safeguarded in a database (Output 3.3) takes on supporting the city of Aleppo (the city) in keeping HLP rights claim in the city’s informal neighborhoods in a well-protected database that the city will subsequently use to compensate the affected rightsholders and support them in reconstruction their damaged properties. Through Output 3.3, UN-Habitat is developing an integrated system consisting of a multiuser centralized database that will be hosted and maintained by the city along with the necessary equipment and a qualified team with different skill to operate the system. Objectives Under the project titled “Integrated Post-Earthquake Early Recovery and Resilience Building in Aleppo and Jableh “, UN-Habitat is recruiting a housing and property consultant (referred hereinafter as Consultant) on Housing and properties to support the implementation of Output 3.3 for the registration of HLP claims in one selected informal neighborhood inside the city of Aleppo. Reporting Line: The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Head of Country Programme and in daily collaboration with the Programme Manager and/or his/her designate and UN-Habitat Aleppo Programme. Duties and Responsibilities: Under this assignment, the Consultant will perform the following tasks:  Coordinate with the technical team working under governorate authority for collecting, surveying and registering the different HLP claims presented by residents of the targeted informal neighborhood;  Overall coordination with key stakeholders (e.g. local government authorities, community leaders and members, etc.) for the following up of the project implementation process and safeguard activities;  Coordinate and facilitate the required meetings, sessions and site visits with UN-Habitat’s team, local authorities and community leaders of the elected neighborhood.  Conduct consultations periodically and disclose relevant project information in targeted area to the project beneficiaries and other stakeholders  Organize legal awareness events with the community’s representatives and key figures explaining the objective and steps of the project, roles of the different actors involved, relevance and importance of collecting the HLP claims and the possible future uses of this information.  Provide continuous legal backup to the technical team along the process of collecting, verifying and registering the acceptable kinds of HLP claims presented by citizens. Qualifications/special skillsUniversity degree or equivalent in civil engineering, architecture, social sciences, or other relevant field of studies is required. Four years’ work experience in the Syrian local governance, urban land development or relevant field is required. In-depth understanding of the Syrian urban land development environment including applicable laws and regulations, policies and common practices is required. Experience in slums and informal settlements is desired. LanguagesFluency in both oral and written English and Arabic is required. Additional InformationNot available. No FeeTHE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.